Talk:Prince Hans/@comment-74.99.65.62-20170719233147
=Prince Charmless= *Main *Laconic *Quotes *ImageLinks *PlayingWith *Create New http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic"You, sir, are the most uncharming prince I have ever met! In fact, the only thing royal about you is that you are a royal pain!" "I was raised to be charming, not sincere."— Cinderella's Prince, Into the Woods The opposite of Prince Charming, a prince, or someone at least of high nobility, who is absolutely wrong for the heroine or Love Interest, because he is boring, shallow, or a total jerk (if not outright The Evil Prince). The princess will either fall for that prince at first, or have an Arranged Marriage with him, but will end up with the commoner guy instead (who might be a prince himself and not know it). This is a common character in Fractured Fairy Tales. Despite the title, this can happen with princesses. It's just rarer. A variation on the Romantic False Lead—except here the "prince" is clearly the Wrong Guy. This may be done to Prince Charming retroactively by Derailing Love Interests. Not to be confused with Prince Charming Wannabe, who is not a literal prince, but often displays many of the same wrong-guy traits as this guy. ---- Examples: open/close all folders Anime & Manga *Berserk: Griffith acts as a stereotypical Prince Charming to Princess Charlotte, but he is only using her to rule the Kingdom of Midland. However, he is capable of pulling the Prince Charming stunt so well that NO ONE thinks that he's charmless, even some readers can be fooled. However, once the Eclipse goes down, Griffith shows us that he's not just Charmless... he's pure evil. (he still is pretty charismatic for bastards though) *Code Geass: First Prince Odysseus U Britannia (a nice guy compared to the rest of his mostly ruthless, brutal, egotistical, cunning, sadistic, sociopathic, racist, megalomaniacal, 31 flavors of balls-to-the-wall batshit insane, and downright assholish kin but not very bright for the heir apparent to Britannian throne) almost has an Arranged Marriagewith Token Mini-Moe Tian-Zi, the Empress of China. Obviously, it was not meant to be. There's a reason fans call him"Prince Valium". *Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny: Yuna Roma Seiran. Foppish, tactless and supremely arrogant, Yuna was so unlikeable that fans actually wished Cagalli had just shot him on the spot during their first meeting. Super Robot Wars K tries to moderate this somewhat, with some limited success. *The noble title of Conrad in Rune Soldier Louie isn't entirely clear, but he has all the traits of the trope. He's even much more worse at being a hero than Louie, who at least has the spirit to help people and shows some degree of competence, while Conrad is just an Upper-Class Twit. *Hotohori from Fushigi Yuugi has some shades of this trope, mainly because he hasn't learned to interact informally with people due to his sheltered existence, and also because he's more than a little vain. He's actually very nice, and he means well, though. *Kagerou of Inu × Boku SS. He's not a literal prince, but he is the heir to a wealthy and influential family and is the arranged fiance of the main heroine. His outrageous behavior completely betrays any prestigious upbringing you'd expect him to have and does nothing to endear himself in his fiancee's eyes. He is extremely hammy and rude, has an incessant need to create a Big Entrance for himself, and compulsively categorizes literally everything he sees into being either a Sadist or a Masochist. *Zig-zagged in Slayers. Lina Inverse is seeking out to meet Crown Prince Philionell of Saillune, thinking he's the typical Prince Charming, to charm him into marrying her. When she encountered him, she found out that he's a boorish man more fit to be a bandit chief, and old enough to have a daughter not much younger than Lina. But it turns out Phil is a nice guy after all; Lina's matrimonial plans shatter, but she still befriends Philionell. Phil's daughter, Princess Amelia, even becomes a permanent member of Lina's adventuring party. *Wolfram from Kyo Kara Maoh!. He's a Royal Brat, and also constantly accusing his fiancé of cheating on him, and berating his fiancé. Comic Books *Fables: Prince Charming is this to Snow White. And Sleeping Beauty. And Cinderella. And almost Beauty. Yeah, he gets around. Eventually he does turn his life around and is killed saving the world. To help clarify, he has a natural ability that makes people instinctively like him, but after a time it no longer has an effect; by the time he first appears in the story, he's managed to charm his way into and subsequently get chased out of every royal and noble house in Europe. *Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Search shows before that becoming Fire Lord, Ozai is this to Ursa. Ursa does not love him, as Ozai is a manipulative, power-hungry jerk, but she is forced to marry him. Instead, Ursa has already fallen for a commoner named Ikem. Films — Animation *The prince from Happily N'Ever After. No wonder Cinderella married a commoner. Subverted in that he is actually happy for the couple. *In Shrek 2, Prince Charming is supposed to marry Fiona, but his personality does not endear him to her. *Beauty and the Beast: Beast started out this way; largely the reason why the enchantress cursed him. *Frozen: Prince Hans Westerguard has charm, just not the good kind. *The Trope Namer is Prince Paul from The Secret of Anastasia. Taken a bit further than most examples. He's not a prince at all — he's actually the ruthless Secret Policeman Checka, who murdered the real Prince Paul and is posing as him to romance Anastasia, steal the Romanov fortune, and dispose of her. Films — Live-Action *Prince Valium from Spaceballs. This is a mild case, since he's too sleepy to show any obnoxious personality traits, or any actual personality. He's just so boring he even bores himself, apparently. *Prince Leopold from the The Illusionist is a domestic abuser, and has a terrible temper when he doesn't get what he wants. Literature *A Song of Ice and Fire. At first, idealistic young Sansa Stark believes Joffrey to be a Prince Charming and is greatly looking forward to their arranged marriage—but after things go to hell and she becomes a prisoner of war at King's Landing, she quickly realizes Joffrey is not just this trope when he doesn't have to mind his manners in public, but a totally spoiled sadist on top. She realises her life with him will be far from happy. She still has to keep up the façade of loving him, lest her time at King's Landing become worse, however... *In By the Sword by Greg Costikyan, the princess has great misgivings about her Arranged Marriage to one of these princes. The prince is fat, smelly, and has bad table manners. The princess eventually talks to a member of the prince's court, who explains that the prince is actually a very gentle man, and he's also extremely gay, so the princess never has to worry about having to have sex with him. She is reassured by this, and decides that this marriage won't be so bad. *Therandil in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles (on purpose, since it's a Deconstructive Parody). Most of the princes in the series are like this. It's implied that most of them mean well, though, and—like princesses—were just given "traditional" upbringings which resulted in their silly behavior. **This is extra-fun because Therandil actually does fit most of the qualifications for a straight-up Prince Charming: he's handsome, brave, honest and well-meaning, a skilled fighter, and does his best to Always Save the Girl. The problem is, he's also dumb as a brick and doesn't quite get that Cimorene prefers serving a dragon to living in a castle. *Played with in The Paper Bag Princess; Prince Ronald is clearly this, and Princess Elizabeth realizes this at the end, but there's no lower-class equivalent for him. So she dumps him and lives life alone—played as a Happy Ending. *The Chronicles of Prydain: Prince Ellidyr is not at any point set up to be the heroine's love interest but otherwise fits the trope perfectly. And given that the heroine is a princess while the hero is a commoner, it's not a reach to understand why the hero was a little nervous about the possibility of such a match arising anyway. **Prince Rhun was—at first—this trope played straight. Although not malicious, he was an obnoxious bumbling manchild and The Millstone to any group saddled with him. There was talk of betrothing Eilonwy to him in the future, and Taran was disgusted and furious at the thought. He was never as stupid as Taran initially thought, however, and he did do some growing up. *Discworld: The Duc in the novel Witches Abroad. He's not technically a prince but the principle applies. He's in cahoots with evil fairy godmother Lilith, and Magrat is called in (with Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg along for the ride) to save Emberella from marrying him. **And he's a frog. *In The Royal Diaries: Catherine: The Great Journey by the time Catherine married the weak Man Child Peter III Of Russia, he was disfigured and once he ascended the throne his loyalty to his country of birth ruined Russia's successes in the Seven Years' War. *The Prince in Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes is downright Ax-Crazy, cheerfully chopping the heads off the ugly sisters before they can try the shoe on. Cinderella marries a jam-maker instead. *Ferencz Nadasdy in Count and Countess. *In the Heralds of Valdemar series: **Young Queen Selenay is swept off her feet by one of these, only to realize too late what a mistake she made. The Heralds keep silent rather than let her know that they have misgivings about the match, since they don't have any proof to back things up and outright trying to forbid the marriage would just make her more insistent on the marriage, and it nearly backfires fatally when the Prince and his friends try to assassinate Selenay. **His brother, Prince Darren, starts off as one of these but eventually learns sense. **Prince Ancar of Hardorn, who attempts to marry Selenay's daughter, is one of these at best: then he throws off the mask and shows what a monster he actually is. *A tricky variation in John Moore's The Unhandsome Prince. The titular Prince Hal is not this trope, but Caroline doesn't want to marry him—the reward for kissing the right frog is supposed to be a handsome prince, and Hal is...well, not the thing girls dream about. His oldest brother, Prince Kenneth, on the other hand, seems like all Caroline could ask for, except for the rudeness, the arrogance, the mean streak, the cruelty to animals, the utter ruthlessness... *In "Prince Charming", Princess Anastasia is afraid her young brother, Dmitriv, might actually be this for Vasilisa. Lazy, irresponsible, and a flirt, Dmitriv doesn’t look like the best match for the good-hearted Vasilisa. Subverted in that Dmitriv resolves to make a change for the better by the end. *Bryan in Summers at Castle Auburn is spoiled, hot-headed, cruel, and stupid. The only reason he isn't The Evil Princeis because he totally lacks political ambition. *Prince Ghyaneth of Berringey in Elemental Blessings. He's blunt, rude, Berrincentric, and his country practices routine regicide of every royal save the heir to ensure there are no factions or coups. Princess Josetta can't stand him. *Prince Bronau in Daughter of the Lioness is a family friend of the Balitangs, very affable, young, and handsome. He quickly starts flirting with Sarai and making the impression that he wants to marry her. He does, but only because she's a close royal cousin and he can use her name to legitimize his own claim if he can become the king's favorite, and to pay off his considerable debts. He loses the affability as soon as he's thwarted, tries to kidnap the child king after the old king dies, and then while attacking the Balitang house, kills Sarai's father. Hard to be less charming than that. *Prince Marek in Uprooted. Agnieszka is initially excited to see him riding up to the tower, as he's a famous war hero who's bravely fought numerous monsters from the malevolent Wood. Then when he gets there, he casually tries to rape her to get one over on her wizard teacher (she defends herself with magic and a heavy metal tray, and notes that she probably would have said yes if he'd bothered to ask). After that, it's clear that he's a self-centered schemer who while personally brave, is also manipulative, spendthrift with other people's lives, and doesn't care what dirty tricks he has to pull to achieve his goal. (Which is, admittedly, the rather sympathetic desire to save his mother from twenty-odd years in the Wood.) Live-Action TV *Alice: In this Syfy miniseries, Jack Chance is first seen as a normal, decent, Nice Guy when he proposes to Alice, until the Reveal mid-way, where he is shown to be Prince Jack Heart, the Big Bad's son. Also a Rebel Prince in a previously Arranged Marriage, helping Alice and the Wonderland Resistance to overthrow his mother. Later gets hit with a case of Wrong Guy First when Alice rejects his second proposal and hooks up with Hatter. *Once Upon a Time has Prince James, the twin brother to the man who would eventually grow up to be Prince Charming. Calling the guy an arrogant, stuck-up Jerkass might be putting it mildly. His dad is no prize either. *In Monty Python's Happy Valley sketch, the wise old king Otto has run out of suitors for the hand, and other desirable parts, of his daughter Princess Mitzi Gaynor. After killing off lots of princes of the Charming sort, the last standing suitor is Prince Walter. Walter is described as:... rather thin and spotty, with a long nose and bandy legs, and nasty unpolished plywood teeth, and bad breath, and a rare foot disease. With a personality to match. *On Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Prince Tuesday would occasionally lapse into this, but it was justified in that he was supposed to be a child who still had a lot to learn, just like the target audience Myths & Religion *In the Book of Genesis, the unnamed Shechemite prince who rapes Dinah, then decides after the fact that he's in love with her, and has his father ask her father to give her to the prince in marriage. Understandably, her family does not take this the way he intended. *In the Books of Kings, Prince Amnon, who lusts after his half-sister and rapes her, then casts her away in disgust, blaming her for causing him to lust after her. Theater *Into the Woods: Both Princes. They're clearly just after "hard to get" girls and lose interest after they've gotten them. Cinderella's prince cheerfully seduces the Baker's Wife into a quick fling, and at the end, both guys have moved on from Cinderella and Rapunzel to Snow White and Sleeping Beauty."I was raised to be charming, not sincere." *Portia's suitors in The Merchant of Venice. There's a scene where Portia and Nerissa consider them then dismiss them all. Only the Princes of Morocco and Aaragon get through to the casket lottery, but even then the Spaniard's usually portrayed as Ambiguously Gay and the Moroccan is usually played like he's on jehad. Of Course Bassanio's the only one for Portia. Video Games *Dragon Quest: **Dragon Quest V: Prince Harry. When you first meet him, he's a six-year old selfish prankster who only cares about himself, offering you to be his lackey (only to say you're not worthy of being one), and even complains about how long you took when you and your father come to his rescue. After Pankraz's death and being enslaved by the Order of Zugzwang for ten years, he gets better. His son, however, ends up being a carbon copy of his dad during the spoiled-brat phase, even going so far as to pull the same stunts on the main character's own children, though thankfully without any kidnapping occurring. **Dragon Quest VI: Prince Howard of Howcastle, who goofs around with village kids and forever runs from the cave of trials that every heir to the throne has to go through by a certain age. It takes no less than three false starts before the party finally drags him through the trials. However, the experience obviously impresses upon Howard the magnitude of the task, and he buckles down once the quest is completed. **Dragon Quest VIII: Prince Charmles. In the localization, he's called "Prince Charmless" a lot (though he claims it's pronounced Charm-lay). As a character, he's a total Jerkass, to cover up his Dirty Cowardice. Even Princess Medeauses the nickname at one point. ***It's particularly noteworthy since he is given every opportunity to clean up and do the right thing. However, he seems to actively rebuke opportunities for Character Development, going so far as to cheat on the Rite of Passagethat the party was already hired to help him with. In the end, it comes back to bite him, though, since his fiance and would-be father-in-law were both present to witness his childish antics, and his father secretly catches him in the aforementioned act of cheating, costing him his engagement and whatever prestige he still had. *Psychonauts has Dingo Inflagrante (AKA Dean LaGrante), a Jerkass Matador existing in the mind of Edgar Teglee who supposedly stole his love Lampita Pasionado (AKA Lana Panzoni) from him, according to Unreliable Narrators. When Raz meets the more Reliable Narrators, the story is clarified as Dean stealing Lana from him. *In Warcraft Prince Arthas appears to be a classic good and noble hero. He's a paladin for the Light's sake. However, the game and particularly expanded universe materials reveal not only his slide into darkness, but the fact that really? He was already a bit of a jerk. The paladins (other than Uther) never really liked him and make sure to point this out just before he kills them. *In Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, the player character has the option of helping Princess Seraphine run away from an arranged marriage to one of these. *King's Quest: **King's Quest IV: ***Edgar appears to be this but ends up being quite the subversion. As a deformed, hunchbacked Fae, he is too bashful to say much of anything, though he does end up talking Lolotte into sparing Rosella's life so Rosella can endure a Fetch Quest instead. After Lolotte has the treasures, he convinces her again to save Rosella's life via Standard Hero Reward. Then, he pulls a Heel–Face Turn by allowing Rosella a chance to escape, despite his case of Love at First Sight. Genesta's reward of changing him back to his true form completes his transformation into a Prince Charming. ***A straighter example in the same game is the Jerkass that was bespelled into a frog. At least his frog crown is useful. **King's Quest VII also has a little of this, though only in passing. Although we never meet the prince in question, the intro features Valanice trying to talk Rosella into marrying one of the princes of another kingdom, who Rosella claims is "sooo boring". *In Fairy Godmother Tycoon, one of the rival potioneries is the NSHP, or Not-So-Charming Princes. As the story progresses, they turn out to be nice fellows. Play your cards right, and they will marry Cinderella's Ugly Stepsisters (They're sweet while Cindy's a spoiled brat). Web Comics *No Rest for the Wicked: Prince Ricardo a.k.a. "Dick the Picky". The words "Picky" and "Dick" pretty much describe his personality completely. He's something of a Grammar Nazi, and the Princesses he rescues tend to be somewhat ditzy. He also gave up on Sleeping Beauty because she snored. That is to say, rather than at least wake her up, he just walked out the way he came in, leaving her to her eternal sleep. In an unassailable castle no-one had ever gotten into before. Nice move, Dick. Western Animation *Every late arrival suitor during Aladdin: The Series is this trope, save for Prince Uncouthma, who ends up being likable. *Avatar: The Last Airbender: **Avatar: The Last Airbender: Though his social rank is unclear, Yue's fiance is very much this. He's more interested in being a pompous braggart and making Sokka out to be a low-class rube than he is in... anything at all, really. **In The Legend of Korra, Prince Wu of the Earth Kingdom is a self-centered, vain Man Child and Casanova Wannabe. Despite his brattiness and immaturity, however, he is shown to have some Hidden Depths, being far more considerate towards commoners than his great-aunt, Earth Queen Hou-Ting, and after some humbling experiences, he is prepared to admit that he probably wouldn't make a very good king. *The Legend of Zelda: Prince Facade is so excessively concerned with appearances that he is willing to let Zelda get kidnapped instead of risking getting his clothes dirty. *My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Ever since "The Ticket Master", Rarity has hoped to meet "him," Princess Celestia's distant nephew Prince Blueblood. It is not until "The Best Night Ever" that she finally meets him in-person during the Grand Galloping Gala. Unfortunately, Blueblood turns out to be a vain, stuck-up jerk, and after he uses Rarity as an equine shield against a flying cake, she finally gets fed up and chews him out for it. And that is after he's turned all the traditional courtesies on their heads because he's an Entitled Bastard who thinks It's All About Prince Blueblood. As the ponies are fleeing the gala, Rarity drops a glass slipper... and when Pinkie Pie points this out, smashes it out of fear he'll use it to find her. To clarify the full significance of this: Rarity has always been shown to be a very dedicated social climber. Blueblood is so intolerable she's willing to completely torpedo her own reputation to dress him down properly. However, if Friends Forever 26 is any indication, he can be charming... just not to his own citizens. *Not a prince, but in episode 3 of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, Daphne's parents push her to go on a date with a snobby rich guy. He's late to the date, won't stop talking about himself, steals Daphne's food, and makes her pay the check. Needless to say, she ditches him real quick. And as a bonus he's also the Monster of the Week *In The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode "Wiz Kids" the class is practicing "standard toad-to-prince spells". Milhouse's incantation is "slimy prince limey". That alone should be an indication of what kind of man the frog turns into. It should be noted, however, that Milhouse's Prince is head and shoulders above Bart's attempt."'Ow are ya, love? Give us a kiss then!"